Matthias Lilienthal is the newly appointed Intendant of Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. He began his career at Theater Basel as dramaturge to Frank Castorf and Christoph Marthaler and then worked as Chief Dramaturge and Deputy Artistic Director at Volksbühne, where he brought Christoph Schlingensief and Johann Kresnik. In 2002 and 2014, he directed the “Theater der Welt” festival in the Rhine Valley and Mannheim. From 2003 to 2013, he was Director of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, which was twice voted “Theater of the Year” in the critics’ survey conducted by the magazine Theater heute. From 2015 to 2020, he took over the management of the Münchner Kammerspiele and transformed it into a hybrid of municipal theater and production house. This theater was also named “Theater of the Year” twice during his directorship. Since then, Lilienthal has organized festivals, including “This Is Not Lebanon” at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, as well as worked as a dramaturge, lecturer, and actor.

Klaus Biesenbach is a German American curator and museum director. Since January 2022, he is Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie with the Berggruen Museum and Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection, as well as the under-construction berlin modern. He served as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, from 2018 to 2021. He is also a former chief curator-at-large at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and former director of MoMA PS1, New York. Biesenbach is also the founding director of Berlin’s Kunst-Werke (KW) Institute for Contemporary Art and the Berlin Biennale.

Dr. Eva-Dorothee Leinemann is on the board of the Eva Leinemann Art Foundation, which was establiished in 2014. She is a banker, lawyer, and notary and studied and completed her doctorate in law in Halle. She has been based in Berlin since 2001, where she works at the law firm Leinemann Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB. She has been a member of the Friends of the Neue Nationalgalerie since 2006. 

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is an internationally recognized collector, patron, and President of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, which she founded in 1995 to support and promote contemporary art. With venues in Turin, Guarene, Venice, and a sister institution in Madrid (established in 2017), the Foundation is a key center for artistic experimentation, education, and dialogue. She serves on leading international museum boards and councils, including the International Councils of the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and Tate Modern (London), the Leadership Council of the New Museum (New York), and the Boards of the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (New York) and École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. She is patron of Fundación Museo Reina Sofía, Fundación MACBA, and a major patron of CIMAM. In Italy, she presides over the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, the Fondazione IEO-Monzino, and the Committee of Italian Contemporary Art Foundations. She also chaired the Organizing Committee of the Special Olympics World Winter Games Torino 2025. Her honors include the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Leo Award from ICI, and the Premio Internacional de Mecenazgo. She teaches at IULM University in Milan and contributes regularly to publications on collecting and cultural philanthropy.

Azu Nwagbogu is an internationally acclaimed curator and the Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. He also serves as Founder and Director of LagosPhoto Festival, an annual international arts festival of photography held in Lagos. He is the publisher of Art Base Africa, a virtual space to discover and learn about contemporary art from Africa and its diasporas. In 2021, Nwagbogu was awarded “Curator of Year 2021” by the Royal Photographic Society, UK, and listed among the 100 most influential people in the art world by ArtReview. In 2023, Nwagbogu was appointed Explorer at Large by National Geographic Society and in 2024, he curated the first-ever Benin Pavilion at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst (b. 1971) studied art history, American studies, and German literature at Hamburg University and New York University, PhD. While in New York from 1995–2003 he was the head of the Art Science Research Laboratory under the directorship of Stephen Jay Gould at Harvard University. Since 2003, he has been Global Head of Cultural Engagement at the BMW Group. He has initiated and co-created hundreds of cultural initiatives worldwide and lectures at various international universities. In 2016, he received the European Cultural Manager of the Year award. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the TUM Center for Culture and Arts. His publications have been translated into many languages and include Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment (Peter Lang, 2015), The Duchamp Dictionary (Thames & Hudson, 2014), BMW Art Cars (Hatje Cantz, 2014), 100 Secrets of the Art World (Koenig Books, 2016), and Esther Mahlangu: A Life in Color (Thames & Hudson, 2024). In 2026, his new book Cultural Management: A Global Guide will be published by Thames & Hudson.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London; lives and works in Berlin) received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2019. Her practice centers on preserving the histories and experiences of Black Trans people, using technology as a tool for archiving and activism. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions and performances at institutions such as Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; LAS, Berlin, Tate, Britian and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, among others. In addition, Brathwaite-Shirley participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as Feral file X MoMA; MMCA, Seoul; Centre Pompidou Metz and Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin.

Sheldon Gooch is Curatorial Assistant at MoMA PS1, New York, where he has provided support for solo exhibitions featuring Pacita Abad (2023) and Sohrab Hura (2024), the group exhibition “The Gatherers” (2025), and the museum’s signature summer music series, Warm Up. He is currently collaborating with Jody Graf on the forthcoming New York presentation of “Vaginal Davis: Magnificent Product,” organized by Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in collaboration with Gropius Bau, Berlin and MoMA PS1. Prior to PS1, Gooch held curatorial positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Diane Severin Nguyen (b. 1990, Carson, CA) is an artist based in New York. She received her BA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2013) and MFA from Bard College (2019). Solo exhibitions have been held at the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai;  La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; SculptureCenter, New York; and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, among others. Her work has been included in large-scale biennials and festivals including the 2024 Whitney Biennial, New York; MOMENTUM 12, Moss, Norway; the 40th EVA International, LImerick City, Ireland; and the 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Marcela Guerrero is the DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2026, Guerrero along with Drew Sawyer will curate the 82nd edition of the Whitney Biennial, the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States. Guerrero’s writing has appeared in several exhibition catalogues and in art journals. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Guerrero holds a PhD in art history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Sun Yitian was born in Zhejiang, China in 1991, and lives and works in Beijing. She studied painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, graduating in 2015 and obtaining an MFA in 2018. Yitian is now completing her doctorate at the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University, Beijing with a thesis preliminarily entitled “Material and Symbolic Dimensions of Objects Depicted in Western Painting, 17th-20th Century.” The artist’s exhibition “Romantic Room” is currently on view at Esther Schipper, Berlin, marking her third project with the gallery.

Lisa Botti is a curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, where she recently co-curated the exhibitions “Isa Genzken 75/75” and “Andy Warhol: Velvet Rage and Beauty” together with the museum’s director Klaus Biesenbach. Together they also program the annual Perform! Festival, which combines historical performances with contemporary positions. She previously worked at the Sydney Biennale from 2019 to 2021, during which time Brook Andrew was the artistic director. From 2016 to 2019, she was the director of Chan + Hori in Singapore, which focused on public art across Southeast Asia. Botti holds an MA in Art and Visual History from Humboldt University of Berlin.

Kate Brown is Senior Editor at Artnet News and a host of The Art Angle podcast, where she frequently interviews artists, journalists, and authors. She founded the nonprofit art space Ashley Berlin, which operated from 2013 to 2024, focused on emerging contemporary artists. She serves as a guest mentor for the Berlin Program for Artists and will be teaching a course on art criticism during the 2026 Winter University of the Arts at UdK Berlin.

Filip Dames is a Berlin-based entrepreneur and technology investor. He was part of the founding team at Zalando and later started Cherry Ventures, investing in Europe’s leading tech startups. Today, Filip brings that same entrepreneurial spirit to the cultural space. His art collection—featuring works by emerging artists as well as established positions—reflects his interest in the intersection of technology and culture, and his drive to explore what’s next. Through his work with his family foundation, his role on the Board of Trustees at the State Opera Berlin, and as a founding member of Octo Circle, he supports initiatives in the arts, education, and entrepreneurship in Berlin and beyond.

Robert Ramsauer spent 20 years at Blackstone in London and New York, ultimately serving as Global Chief Operating Officer of Private Equity. He is a partner at Parallel Vienna, a hybrid organization combining an art fair, exhibition platform, and artist studios; a founding partner of Phileas, a Vienna-based organization that supports artists, curators, galleries, and institutions in Austria with the goal of building their international presence; and the co-founder of the fashion label POAN – Peoples of All Nations.

Dr. Christine Würfel-Stauss is an art collector, cultural advocate, and attorney with a PhD in the philosophy of law. Dividing her time between Germany and the United States, she lends her active support to cultural institutions and artistic communities. Her cultural engagement is focused on supporting and shaping a thriving and diverse cultural landscape by fostering connections between artists, institutions, and audiences across borders.

Jordan Carter is Curator and Co–Department Head at Dia Art Foundation, where he has curated exhibitions of work by Jo Baer, stanley brouwn, Tony Cokes, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Renée Green, Maren Hassinger, Mary Heilmann, Cameron Rowland, Lucas Samaras, and Keith Sonnier, among others. Carter oversees Dia’s collection as well the preservation of and programming around Dia’s permanent installations and the stewardship of Cameron Rowland’s Depreciation (2018). He previously served as an associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a BA from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where he focused on Fluxus and global Conceptual art.

Carson Chan is the inaugural Director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and a curator in the museum’s Department of Architecture and Design. He develops, leads, and implements the Ambasz Institute’s research initiatives through exhibitions, public lectures, conferences, seminars, publications, and more. Before joining MoMA in 2021, Chan co-curated the 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012) and served as Executive Curator of the Biennial of the Americas in Denver, Colorado (2013). In 2006, he cofounded PROGRAM, a project space and residency program in Berlin that tested the boundaries of architecture through exhibition making. His writing appears regularly in art and architecture publications, and he is currently a PhD candidate at Princeton University.

Kimberly Bradley is a critic, editor, and educator based in Berlin. She has written for publications ranging from Frieze to The New York Times; edited catalogues and artist books for institutions including KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Haus der Kunst, and Gropius Bau; and for a decade taught courses in contemporary art practices at NYU Berlin. She is a commissioning editor at Art Basel Stories and in 2024 was the curator of Art Basel Conversations in Basel and Miami Beach.

Zuzanna Czebatul (b. 1986, Międzyrzecz, Poland) participated in 2024 in numerous national and international exhibitions, including “Arcadia” at the Bally Foundation in Lugano, “Park as Lover” at Lantz’scher Skulpturenpark in Düsseldorf, and “Come Closer” at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp. She was also named the 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Bad Wildbad Residency in Rothenburg, Germany and participated in the AlUla Research and Innovation Residency, Saudi Arabia. Her work is defined by an exacting study of the complex interactions between power, ideology, and their cultural forms of expression. Harnessing monumental relics, infrastructures of commemoration, and architectural interventions, she analyzes how political systems engender an aesthetic of hegemony.

Jean-Marie Gallais is an art historian and writer based in Paris. As Curator at the Pinault Collection, he just opened a Thomas Schütte retrospective at Punta della Dogana – Pinault Collection in Venice and a project by Ali Cherri at Bourse de Commerce in Paris. In 2023, he was co-curator of the retrospective “Mike Kelley. Ghost and Spirit” at Bourse de Commerce, now travelling to the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; K21, Düsseldorf; and Tate Modern, London. Before joining the Pinault Collection, Gallais was Chief Curator at the Centre Pompidou-Metz between 2016 and 2022, where he curated exhibitions such as “Peindre la nuit. Night Painting,” “Folklore,” and “Writing is drawing, with Etel Adnan”. He regularly contributes to international publications and conversations about contemporary art.

Thomas Struth (b. 1954) lives and works in Berlin. Struth has exhibited his work at Galerie Max Hetzler on a regular basis since 1987. Major retrospectives were held at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2019) and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2017). In 2016, his comprehensive solo exhibition “Nature & Politics” opened at the Museum Folkwang, Essen, before being presented at Gropius Bau, Berlin; the High Museum, Atlanta; the Moody Center for the Arts, Houston; and the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri. Other major solo exhibitions have taken place at international institutions including MAST Foundation, Bologna (2019); Aspen Art Museum (2018); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2014 and 2003); Kunsthaus Zürich; Museu Serralves, Porto; K20, Düsseldorf (all 2011); Museo del Prado, Madrid (2007); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2003); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2003); and the Dallas Museum of Art (2002).

Joachim Jäger is Head of Collections and Deputy Director at Neue Nationalgalerie. He was deeply involved in the refurbishment of the museum’s building (2012–2021) and is now deeply involved in the planning for the new building “berlin modern.” He is the author and publisher of numerous books and articles on modern and contemporary art. Select exhibitions he has curated include “Wolfgang Tillmans. Lighter” (2008), “Divided Heaven. Art between 1945–1968” (2011–2013), “Otto Piene. More Sky” (2014), “Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hieroglyphs” (2016/2017), “Pablo Picasso x Thomas Scheibitz. Signs, stage, lexicon” (2019), “Monica Bonvicini. I do you” (2022), “Barbara Kruger. Bitte lachen / Please cry” (2022), and “Zerreißprobe / Extreme Tension. Art between Society and Politics. 1945-2000” (2024).

Leelee Chan (b. 1984, Hong Kong) lives and works in Hong Kong. She received her MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2009) and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2006). In 2020, Chan received the ninth BMW Art Journey. Her solo and two person exhibitions include “Chrysalis Spectre,” Matthew Brown, Los Angeles (2024); “Silica Meadows,” Capsule Shanghai (2023); “Strange Strangers,” Para Site, Hong Kong (2023); “Antinomies,” Klemm’s, Berlin (2022); and “Core Sample,” Capsule Shanghai (2019). Chan’s work has been exhibited at institutions including M+, Hong Kong (2024); Hong Kong Museum of Art (2023); Macaline Art Center, Beijing (2024); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); Skulpturen Park Köln, Cologne (2020); X Museum, Beijing (2020); and Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts Dunes, Beidaihe, China (2020).

Teresa Retzer is a curator, writer, and critic with a background in art history and philosophy. Her practice centers on media art, performance, and research-driven approaches, with a focus on the societal agency and responsibility of art and public institutions. She has held curatorial roles at Haus der Kunst Munich, ZKM | Karlsruhe, the Berlin Biennale, Manifesta 11, and other international platforms. In parallel, she supports artists at risk through NGO work. Her projects address topics such as classism, right-wing extremism, and ecological collapse through collaborative, socially engaged formats.